Download 1. FOOD ADDITIVES AND WHY THEY ARE USED

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1. FOOD ADDITIVES AND WHY THEY ARE USED
(reprinted from www.rsc.org)
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Introduction
The role of food additives in food manufacture has been much maligned and
misunderstood in recent years. Additives fell victim to bad press to the extent that,
at the height of the anti-“E” numbers campaign in the 1980s, the word “additive”
became almost synonymous with “adulteration”, and foods containing additives
were as much to be avoided as foods containing genetically modified ingredients
have become since their introduction in the late 1990s. Authors whose main
objective appeared to be the denigration of the food manufacturing industry,
particularly the major multinationals, found this easy meat in an atmosphere of
consumer ignorance, and were guaranteed support for their cause by scaring their
audience into believing that additives were responsible for a wide range of ill
effects from intolerance and hyperactivity to long-term chronic diseases.
Constantly prefacing the words “food additive” with “chemical” was sufficiently
emotive to result in the perception of “nasty”. Alongside this was the implication
that ready-prepared, processed food was inherently inferior to, and less
wholesome than food prepared in the home.
The catalyst for the 1980s focus on additives was a change in labelling
legislation in 1986, which required the detailing of each individual additive in the
ingredients list of most pre-packed products. Until that time, the use of additives
had been indicated by reference to a generic functional group, such as
“preservatives”, “antioxidants” and “colours”. The new labelling requirements
resulted in the appearance on some food labels of some very long lists of
additives, including some lengthy chemical names. Some products looked as
though they were nothing more than a couple of simple ingredients held together
by a dictionary of chemical substances. The “E” number system, intended to
assist as a short code for some of the lengthier chemical names and to indicate
common European safety approval, became the butt of the criticism against the
use of additives, and consumers voted with their feet by leaving products
containing long lists of “E” numbers on the shelf.
The interest in, and fear of, what was being put into food spawned a
number of books on additives, their use in food, potential (harmful) effects and
protocols for their safety approval, along with the author’s specific treatise on the
subject. Some were informative, intended to assist the consumer in understanding
what additives were, how they were produced, why they were used and how to
avoid them, if desired. Others were more politically motivated and used the
fashionable attack on additives as an illustration of all that was bad about the food
industry and the allegedly secretive systems of safety assessment of all chemicals
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and processes used in food production. The implication was that any chemicals
added to food, either as pesticides in primary production or additives in
processing, were suspect.
A generation brought up on convenience foods, removed from the messy
business of primary food production, fell easy prey to this suggestion, apparently
oblivious to the substances and techniques employed by their grandmothers,
when no self-respecting household would have been without baking powder,
bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar, a selection of flavourings and a bottle of
cochineal – some of the most common everyday “food additives”. These
everyday ingredients might well be frowned upon by many a modern shopper
uninitiated in the art of cookery, if spotted on the ingredients label of a
manufactured product in the form of an “E number” or prefaced, as legislation
requires, by its additive class. How many people think of additives when they buy
a lemon or a bottle of vinegar? Yet these too are authorised additives (as citric and
acetic acid, respectively) and widely used in food manufacture for their
preservation properties, as well as their acidic taste, precisely as they are used in
everyday cooking. The use of saltpetre as a preservative can be traced back to
Roman times, and the controversy over additives use goes back to at least 1925,
when the use of boric acid in food was banned under the Preservatives
Regulations. However, in recent years the use of boric acid has been accepted
under the Miscellaneous Food Additives Regulations 1995 as amended, but only
for the treatment of caviar.
Whilst its complexity and scale do not lend modern food manufacture
entirely to direct comparison with the traditional kitchen, it is often forgotten that
the overall purpose is the same – to prepare, preserve, process and, as the case
may be, cook basic raw ingredients to convert them into wholesome, attractive,
better tasting and nutritious food, ready to be consumed. Every cook has his or
her own techniques, and knows many a trick to prevent peeled vegetables and
apples from browning, thicken sauces, brown the gravy, and transform an
everyday dish into something special; he or she will also ease dinner party
preparations by preparing in advance and storing the part-ready dishes for lastminute completion. Food manufacturers do much the same, and, over years of
product development, first on the basis of trial and error and now underpinned by
research programmes, have developed the most effective and economical
methods of producing a wide range of foods to suit every taste and pocket. In
order to achieve this, they need at their disposal a wide range of additives to
perform a number of tasks in the process, from cleaning and refining the raw
materials, to preserving them in optimal condition throughout further processing
or distribution, combining them with other ingredients and ensuring that they
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appear attractive to the consumer. The types of additive used and some of the
functions they perform are explored in greater detail below.
The anti-additives campaign and consequent consumer pressure to
remove or minimise the use of additives inevitably led to changes in
manufacturing practice and marketing. In addition, trends towards more “fresh”
foods and the growth in market share of chilled foods, together with changes in
legislation following completion of the European harmonisation exercise, all had
an impact on the use of additives. It is therefore timely to review the place and
use of additives in the food supply, whilst bearing in mind that they will always
be essential to food preparation, quality and preservation.
What are Food Additives and why are they Used?
The use of food additives is nothing new. Preserving food is an age-old necessity.
Many of the techniques that we now take for granted, such as canning,
refrigeration and freezing, are relatively new. Even the overwintering of farm
animals was rare until the 17th century, when feeding and husbandry techniques
became better understood. Any old or weakly livestock such as oxen, cows,
sheep, pigs and poultry had to be slaughtered in the autumn, and the meat was
dried, salted or pickled to preserve it for the winter months (1). When food
shortage ceases to be a problem, greater emphasis is placed on making food look
and taste good, and we look beyond food as a survival necessity to food as a
pleasure and a treat.
Food additives are used either to facilitate or complement a wide variety
of production methods in the modern food supply. Their two most basic functions
are that they either make food safer by preserving it from bacteria and preventing
oxidation and other chemical changes, or they make food look or taste better or
feel more pleasing in the mouth.
The use of additives in food preservation is, not surprisingly, one of the
oldest traditions. Our forbears may not have thought of saltpetre, used as a curing
agent, or vinegar (acetic acid) as additives, but they would have been the mainstay
for ensuring a longer-term supply of precious perishable foods. Salt, though not
an additive by the modern definition, was the other essential.
Food additives are defined in European legislation as “any substance not
normally consumed as a food in itself and not normally used as a characteristic
ingredient of food, whether or not it has nutritive value, the intentional addition
of which to a food for a technological purpose in the manufacture, processing,
preparation, treatment, packaging, transport or storage of such food results, or
may be reasonably expected to result, in it or its by-products becoming directly
or indirectly a component of such foods” (2).
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Known as the additives “framework” Directive, this Directive also
defines processing aids as “any substance not consumed as a food ingredient by
itself, intentionally used in the processing of raw materials, foods or their
ingredients, to fulfil a certain technological purpose during treatment or
processing, and which may result in the unintentional but technically unavoidable
presence of residues of the substance or its derivatives in the final product,
provided that these residues do not present any health risk and do not have any
technological effect on the finished product.”
Processing aids
Whilst many of the substances used as additives may also be used as processing
aids, the latter function is outside the scope of additives legislation. The
differentiating criterion, and the question that any manufacturer must ask in terms
of regulatory requirements, is “does it continue to function in the final food?” So,
for example, sulphur dioxide (E220) may be used to prevent discoloration of fruit
destined for pie making, but would have no effect in the fruit pie itself, and indeed
would be cooked off during processing. Thus, in this application, it is a processing
aid used in the making of a fruit pie, not an additive performing a function in the
pie itself. Many of us will be used to similar techniques in the kitchen, such as
using lemon juice to prevent discoloration. In the complex world of food
manufacture, where production is increasingly specialised and expertise focused
at specific sites, it is not unusual for the manufacturer of an end product to buy in
many of his supplies as part-processed proprietary ingredients. So additives may
be needed at the “intermediate” stage, but would have no function in the final
product, and would therefore not appear on the label, unless considered to have
the potential to cause an allergenic reaction (see Chapter 2). Thus, anti-caking
agents may be required in dry ingredients to prevent them from turning lumpy
before being made into a fancy cake, but will have no effect once the cake is
baked and decorated, so the anti-caking agent functions as an additive in the dry
mix, but is a processing aid as far as the cake is concerned. Other examples of
processing aids are release agents used to prevent food from sticking to a mould
or, perhaps, slicing equipment. Again, this is part of the process of production, not
the composition of the food, even though there may be traces of the “processing
aid” left on the product, as there would be on a cake from greasing the cake tin.
This, then, is the essential technical difference between a processing aid and an
additive.
The “framework” Directive identifies a number of classes of additives,
e.g. sweeteners, colours and “miscellaneous” additives (including additive
categories such as preservatives, antioxidants, emulsifiers, stabilisers, thickeners,
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flavour enhancers etc.), for which more detailed legislation was eventually
developed, and lays down general criteria for their use, notably that technological
need must be demonstrated that cannot be achieved by other means; that their
presence presents no hazard to the consumer; and that they do not mislead the
consumer. Their use may be considered only where there is demonstrable benefit
to the consumer, namely to preserve the nutritional quality of the food; to provide
necessary ingredients or constituents for foods manufactured for groups of
consumers with special dietary needs, or to enhance the keeping quality or
stability of a food or to improve its organoleptic properties, provided that, in
doing so, it does not deceive the consumer; and to assist in manufacture,
processing, preparation, treatment, packing, transport or storage of food, provided
that the additive is not used to disguise the effects of the use of faulty raw
materials or of undesirable (including unhygienic) practices or techniques during
the course of any of these activities. These are similar to the principles enshrined
in the Codex Alimentarius, the joint FAO/WHO body responsible for
international standards in food.
The harmonisation of European legislation was a prerequisite for trade
in the Single Market as differences in national legislation constituted barriers to
trade. This is explored in greater detail in a later chapter, but it is important to
appreciate that the development of a new raft of additives legislation in the late
1980s and through the 1990s was not indicative of an absence of controls before
that time, but a recognition that differences in national approaches throughout the
Member States were not conducive to the free movement of goods within a single
economic entity. The new legislation reinforced the requirement for justification
of a case of need in the use of additives and of the importance of not deceiving
the consumer.
The primary aim of the food-manufacturing industry is to provide a wide
range of safe, wholesome, nutritious and attractive products at affordable prices
all year round in order to meet consumer requirements for quality, convenience
and variety. It would be impossible to do this without the use of food additives.
They are essential in the battery of tools used by the food manufacturer to convert
agricultural raw materials into products that are safe, stable, of consistent quality
and readily prepared and consumed.
Different types of additive are used for different purposes, though many
individual additives perform more than one function. For the purposes of both
classification and regulation, they are grouped according to their primary
function. The main groupings, or classes, of additives are explained below,
together with their functions and some examples of their use.
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Preservatives
Preservatives are probably the single most important class of additives, as they
play an important role in the safety of the food supply. Despite this fact, any
chemical used to counteract the perishability of food raw materials has often
become perceived as suspect, and any food containing a preservative has been
considered inferior or unsafe. Yet the use of chemical preservatives, such as
sulphur dioxide and sulphites, is but a continuation of the age-old practices of
using salt, sulphite and spices to preserve perishable foods in the days before
refrigeration and modern processing techniques. All food raw materials are
subject to biochemical processes and microbiological action, which limit their
keeping qualities. Preservatives are used to extend the shelf-life of certain
products and ensure their safety through that extended period. Most importantly,
they retard bacterial degradation, which can lead to the production of toxins and
cause food poisoning. Thus they offer a clear consumer benefit in keeping food
safe over the shelf-life of the product, which itself may be extended by their use
and thus meet the demands of modern lifestyles, including infrequent bulk
shopping expeditions. The continued perception of preservatives as undesirable,
to which the many labels protesting “no artificial preservatives” testify, is
therefore an unfortunate consumer misapprehension.
Antioxidants
Antioxidants reduce the oxidative deterioration that leads to rancidity, loss of
flavour, colour and nutritive value of foodstuffs. Fats, oils, flavouring substances,
vitamins and colours can all oxidise spontaneously with oxygen when exposed to
air. The rate of deterioration can vary considerably and is influenced by the
presence of natural antioxidants and other components, availability of oxygen,
and sensitivity of the substance to oxidation, temperature and light, for example.
Oxidation can be avoided, or retarded, by a number of means, such as replacing
air by inert packaging gases, removal of oxygen with glucose oxidase,
incorporation of UV-absorbing substances in transparent packaging materials,
cooling, and use of sequestering agents. These may not be possible in all cases,
or sufficient for an adequate shelf-life for some foods. Thus antioxidants are used
to retard oxidative deterioration and extend shelf-life. Some antioxidants actually
remove oxygen by self-oxidation, e.g. ascorbic acid, whilst others interfere in the
mechanism of oxidation, e.g. tocopherols, gallic acid esters, BHA and BHT. All
have specific properties, making them more effective in some applications than in
others. Often a combination of two or more antioxidants is more effective than
any one used simply because of their synergistic effects. The presence of
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sequestering agents, such as citric acid, may also have a synergistic effect, by
reducing the availability of metallic ions that may catalyse oxidation reactions.
The use of the powerful synthetic antioxidants BHA, BHT and the gallic acid
esters is very restricted. Tocopherols, which can be either natural or synthetic, are
less restricted but are less effective in the protection of processed foods.
Antioxidants cannot restore oxidised food; they can only retard the oxidation
process. As oxidation is a chain reaction process, it needs to be retarded as early
as possible. The most effective use of antioxidants is therefore in the fats and oils
used in the manufacturing process.
Emulsifiers and stabilisers
The purpose of emulsifiers and stabilisers is to facilitate the mixing together of
ingredients that normally would not mix, namely fat and water. This mixing of the
aqueous and lipid phases is then maintained by stabilisers. These additives are
essential in the production of mayonnaise, chocolate products and fat spreads, for
example. The manufacture of fat spreads (reduced-fat substitutes for butter and
margarine), has made a significant contribution to consumer choice and dietary
change, and would not be possible without the use of emulsifiers and stabilisers.
Other reduced- and low-fat versions of a number of products are similarly
dependent on this technology. Anyone who has ever made an emulsified sauce,
such as mayonnaise or hollandaise, will appreciate the benefits of this technology
– still more so those who have failed miserably in the technique and ended up
with an expensive mess of curdled ingredients!
In addition to this function, the term stabiliser is also used for substances
that can stabilise, retain or intensify an existing colour of a foodstuff and
substances that increase the binding capacity of the food to allow the binding of
food pieces into reconstituted food.
The increasing awareness of problems with food allergy and intolerance
has led to the requirement to state the source of certain emulsifiers on food
labelling. For example, lecithin derived from soya is not suitable for an individual
with an allergy to soya, therefore clear labelling of the source of the ingredient is
vital to aid in consumer choice of products safe for individuals with specific
dietary requirements (see Chapter 2).
Colours
Colours are used to enhance the visual properties of foods. Their use is
particularly controversial, partly because colour is perceived by some as a means
of deceiving the consumer about the nature of the food, but also because some of
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the most brightly coloured products are those aimed at children. As with all
additives, their use is strictly controlled and permitted only where a case of need
is proven, e.g. to restore colour that is lost in processing, such as in canning or
heat treatment; to ensure consistency of colour; and for visual decoration. The use
of colour in food has a long and noble tradition in the UK. Medieval cooks were
particularly fond of it. The brilliant yellow of saffron (from which Saffron Walden
derives its name) and the reddish hue of saunders (powdered sandalwood) were
used along with green spinach and parsley juice to colour soups in stripes or to
give marbleised effects (1). So, whilst adding colour to food may appear to some
to be an unnecessary cosmetic, which is not in the consumer’s interests, there can
be no doubt that the judicious use of colour enhances the attractiveness of many
foods. Some retailers tried introducing ranges of canned vegetables and fruits
such as strawberries and peas without adding back the colour leached out by heat
processing. They were still trying to dispose of the unsold returns several years
later! Colour is important in consumer perception of food and often denotes a
specific flavour. Thus, strawberry flavour is expected to be red and orange flavour
orange-coloured. Consumer expectation is therefore a legitimate reason for
adding colour.
Food colourings, in particular, have long been the scapegoat in the
popular press for behaviour problems in children. It has been over 30 years since
Feingold suggested that artificial food colours and preservatives had a detrimental
effect on the behaviour of children (3).
Since then, research into the effect of colours and preservatives in foods
on children's behaviour has added fuel to the fire of negative consumer perception
of these additives, particularly in products aimed specifically at this age group (4).
Significant changes were found in the hyperactivity behaviour of children by
removing colorants and preservatives from the diet. There was no gender
difference in this result and the reduction of hyperactivity was independent of
whether the child was initially extremely hyperactive, or not hyperactive at all.
More recently in 2007, a study on the effect of two mixtures of certain artificial
food colours together with the preservative sodium benzoate showed an adverse
effect on the hyperactive behaviour of children in some age groups in comparison
with a placebo, although the increases in the levels of children's hyperactive
behaviour were not consistently significant for the 2 mixtures or in the 2 age
groups (5). The findings of this new study replicate and extend the findings from
an earlier study in preschool children in 2004 (6). The colours used in this study
are already included in work of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on
the re-evaluation of colours.
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Colouring Foodstuffs
The term 'colouring foodstuffs' has been adopted for colourings that are derived
from recognised foods and processed in such a way that the essential
characteristics of the food from which they have been derived are maintained.
This is a different situation to natural colours that are regarded as
additives where the pigment is selectively extracted and concentrated.
A colouring foodstuff can be declared as an ingredient on the label
without a requirement for its function to be listed, as legislation only requires this
of additives.
These colouring foodstuffs include bright yellow colours derived from
turmeric, oleoresin and safflower; golden yellow to natural orange colours from
carrots and paprika; toffee brown colour from caramelised sugar syrup; green
colours from spinach leaves and stinging nettles, both rich in chlorophylls; and
red, blue and purple colour from concentrates of red and blue fruits, red cabbage
and beetroot, rich in anthocyanins.
It is clear that the full spectrum of colour shades is achievable using
colouring foodstuffs, although developers should ensure that the colouring
foodstuff exhibits the same stability and vibrancy of colour in the final application
as a conventional food colouring would.
Sweeteners
Sweeteners perform an obvious function. They come in two basic types – “bulk”
and “intense”, and are permitted in foods that are either energy-reduced or have
no added sugar. They are also sold direct to consumers as “table-top” sweeteners
– well-known to dieters and diabetics. For example the table top sweetener
Sunette contains acesulfame-K while Splenda contains sucralose. Intense
sweeteners, such as aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame-K and sucralose have, as
their name suggests, a very high sweetening property, variable from type to type
but generally several magnitudes greater than that of sucrose. (For example,
aspartame is approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar, weight for weight;
saccharin 300–500 times; and acesulfame-K 130–200 times.) Bulk sweeteners,
where the majority are polyols, including erythritol, sorbitol, isomalt and lactitol
are less sweet, but provide volume and hence mouthfeel. Amongst the polyols,
maltitol is one of the sweetest and xylitol, which is the sweetest, has the same
sweetness intensity as sucrose. Due to the reduced sweetness characteristics of the
majority of polyols, it is possible to blend them with other polyols or with intense
sweeteners to improve the sweetness and taste quality. This property is known as
sweetness synergy. Another benefit is the ability to mask the undesired bitter
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metallic aftertaste of some intense sweeteners. Commonly used combinations
include, saccharin with cyclamate, acesulfame-K with aspartame, erythritol with
acesulfame-K and there are many more. Both types of sweetener (bulk or intense)
are useful in low-calorie products, and are increasingly sought after by many
consumers, and for special dietary products such as for diabetics. The absence of
sucrose also lowers the cariogenic properties of the product.
Flavour enhancers
This is a group of additives that has attracted adverse attention, in particular
monosodium glutamate (MSG:E621), which is widely blamed for an intolerance
reaction that became known as “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”.
Flavour enhancers are substances that have no pronounced flavour or
taste of their own but which bring out and improve the flavours in the foods to
which they are added. Although salt has a distinctive taste of its own and is not
classed as a food additive, it is in fact the most widely used flavour enhancer. The
next best known is glutamic acid and its salts, most commonly found in the form
of monosodium glutamate, which has been used for several centuries in the Far
East as a condiment in savoury products. It is a normal constituent of all proteins,
an essential amino acid and present in the body. The alleged intolerance reaction
was never confirmed in sound scientific studies. Anyone showing a reaction to
MSG used as an additive would necessarily also react to foods that contain it
naturally in high quantities, such as tomatoes and cheese.
Some sweeteners have also been found to have flavour-enhancing
properties and have been authorised for use as such. For example, neohesperidine
DC (E959) can enhance the flavour of meat products and margarine, and
acesulfame K, aspartame and thaumatin are used to enhance the flavour of
chewing gum and desserts.
Flavourings
Although flavour enhancers are categorised as additives, flavourings are
technologically different and regulated separately, even though they are often
considered by the general public to be the same thing. Flavourings are defined as
imparting odour and/or taste to foods and are generally used in the form of
mixtures of a number of flavouring preparations and defined chemical substances.
These do not include edible substances and products intended to be consumed as
such, or substances that have exclusively a sweet, sour or salty taste, i.e. ordinary
food ingredients such as sugar, lemon juice, vinegar or salt. The latest draft of the
proposed new EC Regulation on Flavourings would also exclude from the
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definition of flavourings raw foods and non-compound foods, and mixtures of
spices or herbs, mixtures of tea provided they are not used as food ingredients. In
addition to the types of flavouring such as process flavours or smoke flavours,
there are three distinct classes of flavouring substances: natural, e.g. citral; natureidentical, e.g. vanillin; and artificial, e.g. ethyl vanillin. Some 2700 substances
were identified and included in a European register following Commission
Decision (EC) 1999/217/EC as amended. Then there are flavouring preparations,
e.g. vanilla extract. Many flavourings are sold as a complex mixture of individual
preparations and flavouring substances, generally confidential to the company
that has produced the flavouring. Legislation has been designed to protect
commercial confidentiality in registering on the EC list newly discovered
flavouring substances. Because of the complexity of the flavouring used in a food,
labels generally indicate simply “flavourings” in the ingredients list. This is all
that is legally required, as to list every individual substance would often be
extremely lengthy and virtually incomprehensible to the consumer, although the
manufacturer may be more specific if he wishes. Any flavourings labelled as
“natural” must meet the legal definition. The Food Standards Agency has issued
criteria for the use of the term “natural” in product labelling. The new proposal
for an EC Regulation on flavourings and certain food ingredients with flavouring
properties for use in and on foods means that in future there are likely to be
stricter controls for the labelling of natural flavourings (7).
As with additives, some flavourings are sold direct to the consumer for
domestic culinary use. Vanilla and peppermint are amongst the best known, as
well as the popular brandy and rum essences. Anyone who has ever added too
much flavouring to a home-made cake or a batch of peppermint creams will
appreciate the minute quantities in which they are used. Similarly, in commercial
manufacture, the quantity of flavouring used is extremely small in relation to that
of other ingredients. Most flavourings are developed from substances naturally
present in foods. Citrus and orange oils, for example, are amongst the most
common natural source materials used in flavouring preparations and substances.
Other additives
Colours and sweeteners are very specific, well-defined classes of additives and,
because of the nature of their function, are subject to specific legislation. All other
classes of additive now fall under the general heading of “miscellaneous”. In
addition to the larger groups mentioned above, there are other categories within
this more general grouping – namely thickeners, acids, acidity regulators, anticaking agents, anti-foaming agents, bulking agents, carriers, glazing agents,
humectants, raising agents and sequestrants.
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The function of most of these is obvious from the name, with the
possible exception of sequestrants. These are substances that form chemical
complexes with metallic ions. They are not widely used and this is a class of
additives rarely seen on a food label. Thickeners, on the other hand, are amongst
the most commonly used additives, as they exert an effect on the texture and
viscosity of food and drinks products. Much as various types of flour are used
extensively in the kitchen to thicken sauces, soups, stews and other dishes with a
high liquid content, most commercial thickeners are starch- or gum-based and
serve much the same purpose.
One class of additive that has no domestic equivalent is that of
packaging gases. These are the natural atmospheric gases now widely used in
certain types of pre-packed products, such as meat, fish and seafood, fresh pastas
and ready-prepared vegetables found on the chilled food counters in sealed
containers. The “headspace” of the container is filled with one or a combination
of the gases, depending on the product, to replace the air and modify the
atmosphere within the pack to help retard bacteriological deterioration, which
would occur under normal atmospheric conditions – hence the term “packaged in
a protective atmosphere”. Arguably, the gases do not have an additive function as
they are not detectable in the food itself and function only to preserve the food for
longer in its packaged state, but for regulatory purposes they were deemed to be
additives and must therefore be labelled. Carbon dioxide will, of course, also be
familiar as an ingredient in many fizzy drinks - an illustration of the many
different functions and uses of additives.
Current EC legislation on additives does not cover the use of enzymes
apart from invertase and lysozyme. However, in July 2006, the European
Commission published a package of legislative proposals to introduce
harmonised EU legislation on food enzymes for the first time and upgrade current
rules for food flavourings and additives to bring them into line with the latest
scientific and technological developments. The proposals were amended in
October 2007 and are discussed further in the next chapter.
Safety of Additives
The safety of all food additives, whether of natural origin or synthetically
produced, is rigorously tested and periodically re-assessed. In the UK, the
responsible authority is the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food,
Consumer Products and the Environment (COT), a Government-appointed expert
advisory committee, which provides advice to the Food Standards Agency, the
Department of Health and other Government Departments and Agencies on
matters concerning the toxicity of chemicals, including food additives. At
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European level, all additives approved for use in legislation have been evaluated
by the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) or, since May 2003, by its
replacement the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Therefore, EFSA's
Panel on Food Additives, Flavourings, Processing Aids and Materials in Contact
with Food (AFC panel) is now responsible for the safety evaluation of new food
additives (8,9).
Only additives evaluated in this way are given an “E” number; thus the
“E” number is an indication of European safety approval, as well as a short code
for the name of the additive.
In evaluating an additive, EFSA allocates an “Acceptable Daily Intake”
(ADI), the amount of the substance that the panel considers may be safely
consumed, daily, throughout a lifetime. This assessment is used to set the
maximum amount of a particular additive (or chemically related group of
additives) permitted in a specific food, either as a specified number of grams or
milligrams per kilogram or litre of the food or, if the ADI is very high or “nonspecified”, at quantum satis, i.e. as much as is needed to achieve the required
technological effect, according to Good Manufacturing Practice.
In establishing the ADI, a safety factor is always built in, usually 100fold, to ensure that intake of any additive is unlikely to exceed an amount that is
anywhere near toxicologically harmful. To ensure that consumers are not
exceeding the ADI by consuming too much of or too many products containing a
particular additive, the EU legislation requires that intake studies be carried out to
assess any changes in consumption patterns.
The UK has carried out a number of intake surveys involving specific
additives. None has culminated in results that have given cause for concern,
except that in its 1994 survey of artificial sweeteners, consumption by some
toddlers was considered to be excessive, given their high consumption of fruit
squash. This potential problem was resolved by advice to add extra water to
squash given to toddlers. It also raised questions about the establishment and
application of the ADI, given that it is intended to cover changes in patterns of
eating throughout a lifetime, from weaning to old age, but that is a separate
scientific debate in itself.
At international level, there is a further level of evaluation of food
additives, contaminants and residues of veterinary drugs in food by the Joint
Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), which advises the UN's Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) Codex
Alimentarius, which sets international standards. This has become increasingly
important in recent years as World Trade Organisation (WTO) arrangements
specify that Codex standards will apply in any dispute over sanitary and
phytosanitary standards, i.e. the safety and composition of foods. For this reason,
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the Codex General Standard for Food Additives (GSFA), was adopted to
recommend usage levels of food additives in all products traded internationally.
As part of EFSA's role in the area of food additives, it is involved in the
re-evaluation of all authorised food additives in the EU.
In September 2004, EFSA issued an opinion on the safety of parabens
(E214-219) used as preservatives in foods following a risk assessment of its use
in foods. As a result, Directive 2006/52/EC amending Directive 95/2/EC on food
additives other than colours and sweeteners and Directive 94/35/EC on
sweeteners for use in foodstuffs, deleted the preservatives, E216 propyl phydroxybenzoate and E217 sodium propyl p-hydroxybenzoate from the list of
permitted preservatives in Annex III (10).
In the area of sweeteners, the safety of aspartame was considered
controversial, especially following a long-term study on its carcinogenicity in
2005. Hence, EFSA evaluated findings from this study, and, in this case,
confirmed that there was no need to revise the previously established ADI (11).
On the other hand, in re-evaluating the colour E128, Red 2G, in 2007,
EFSA decided that there was a safety concern, and later the Commission
suspended its use (12,13).
Intolerance
Additives have often been blamed for causing intolerance or allergic reactions,
especially hyperactivity in children. Whilst there is no doubt that certain foods
and food ingredients, including additives, are responsible for intolerance
reactions, the prevalence of such reactions has often been greatly exaggerated.
Genuine intolerance to food additives is extremely rare. It has been estimated that
the true prevalence of intolerance to foods is about 2% in adults and up to 20% in
children, and for food additives from 0.01 to 0.23%. The substantial
overestimation of such reactions by the general public probably owes itself to the
adverse media coverage and anti-additives campaigning of the 1980s, when
popular belief was that additives were responsible for harmful behavioural effects
and hyperactivity was attributed solely to the consumption of tartrazine (E102).
The result was that tartrazine, an azo (synthetic) colour, was removed from a wide
range of products, especially sweets and soft drinks that were likely to be
consumed by children, as consumers in their droves ceased to buy anything that
was labelled as containing it. Manufacturers are still reluctant to use this colour,
unless there is nothing else in the palette of yellow colours authorised for the
product. Such is the power of consumer choice, be it informed or otherwise.
Food intolerance, and especially allergy, is again under the spotlight, not
now because of alleged hyperactivity in children, but, far more seriously, because
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of the seemingly growing prevalence of severe allergic reactions, particularly to
peanuts. Since the mid-1990s, there have been a number of widely reported
incidents, including several tragic deaths as a result of anaphylactic shock, a
severe allergic reaction to specific proteins, most commonly those found in tree
nuts and peanuts and a small number of other foods, including milk, wheat, eggs,
soya, fish and shellfish. The reasons for such reactions are not yet fully
understood and are still under investigation, as are the causes of this apparently
growing problem, but the need to address the issue and do everything possible to
assist the small but significant number of people affected by this most severe form
of allergy caused the European Commission to task its former Scientific
Committee for Food (SCF) with identifying the scope of the problem and the
foods and ingredients associated with it. This 1996 Report reaffirmed the SCF's
earlier (1982) estimation of intolerance to additives as affecting from 0.01 to
0.02% of the European population (14). More specifically, the prevalence of
intolerance to food additives in the population was put at 0.026%, or about 3
people per 10,000 of the population. This compares with the prevalence of
adverse reactions to cows' milk of 1 to 3%. The most commonly observed
reaction is now to sulphur dioxide (E220) and sulphites, especially in asthma
sufferers, again growing in number or perhaps being more frequently reported.
It must be understood that the incidence of genuine intolerance to
additives is very low. Accurate labelling is the key to avoiding unnecessary
suffering of an adverse reaction, such as urticaria, asthma or atopic symptoms, in
the case of sensitised consumers, or adverse publicity in the case of food
producers, and for this reason the EC Labelling Directive 2000/13/EC was
amended in 2002, 2003, 2006 (to establish a list of potential allergens that must
be declared by name on food labels) and in 2007 (see Chapter 2).
Myths and Fallacies
Nothing is guaranteed to fill column inches and dominate the airwaves more than
a good food scare. Additives have seen their share of these, though not on the
scale of the 1996 BSE crisis or the more recent controversy over genetic
modification: though equally long-running and bearing similarities to the latter
issue, additives were never the butt of a concerted campaign by environmentalists
and others dedicated to the downfall of a specific technology. Anti-additives
campaigns would either target a specific additive or class of additives, for
whatever reason, or cite the use of additives as part of a general thrust to disparage
the modern food-manufacturing industry and seek to encourage a “back to basics”
trend towards good old-fashioned home cooking and away from the purported
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less healthy foods produced by industrial processing for the UK’s largely
urbanised society.
Hence the periodic targeting of preservatives, antioxidants, azo colours,
sweeteners and monosodium glutamate. The evidence of such “scares” still
abounds on the labels of countless products that claim to be free from “artificial”
preservatives, colours and additives in general. This is indicative of the
susceptibility of both marketing men and consumers to perceived adverse effects
of particular additives. Such a response is unhelpful; whilst it is understandable
that consumer concern in response to a media scare may result in a company
removing an additive, or indeed any other ingredient, from a product for reasons
of short-term expediency, the options and alternatives will inevitably become
reduced every time something is removed from the range of ingredients, and the
controversy left unresolved. It would be far better to address the issue through
appropriate scientific investigation and seek to ensure that evidence of safety and
absence of adverse effects are given at least some airing in the public domain to
explode the myth engendered by the original controversy.
This, of course, is not easy, as good news is, generally speaking, no news
at all and certainly unlikely to make the headlines. The tabloid newspapers had a
field day with the Food Commission’s stories that “Cyclamates ‘may cause
testicular atrophy’” (15) and “Aspartame ‘may cause brain tumours’” (16).
Refuting such headlines is not easy; the full barrage of scientific evidence
generally needs to be brought out in defence of any food ingredient or additive
placed under the media spotlight and accused of causing some adverse effect.
Often the “evidence” produced in support of the story needs to be pulled apart
under the microscope and any deficiencies, such as in the research protocols or
the way in which any experimentation was conducted, identified. The motivation
for publishing such “research”, and any exaggeration of the findings, also need to
be examined.
All this takes time and will not protect any company using the additive
or additives concerned from a barrage of enquiries from worried customers who,
not unnaturally, seek reassurances that they have not already been harmed or will
not be if they continue to consume the product. Again, a sense of proportion is
important. The “problem” needs to be placed in context, given perspective against
the wide range of risk factors to which all of us are exposed in daily life, and
consumers assisted and encouraged to develop their own sense of risk assessment
and risk management. This will become all the more important as communication
becomes ever more global and instantaneous. The internet offers both threats and
benefits: threats in that anyone can rapidly set off a scare by posting adverse
information about, say, a specific sweetener. This may be a genuine concern that
some possible risk to, perhaps, a certain sector of the population has been found,
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maybe to people suffering from a specific condition. It may also be that an
unscrupulous company seeking to target that group with a new product decides to
set off a scare shortly before launching its product, which is marketed as “free
from” that additive or ingredient. The benefit lies in being able to expose such
scares equally quickly, and the opportunity to post true and accurate information
about food production for those who want to know.
Clean Labels
The growing demand from health-conscious consumers is for the replacement of
artificial food additives with ‘natural’ ingredients, which perform similar
technological functions. Thus, food processors are continuously seeking natural
alternatives to food additives as, when these are listed on labels as the named
ingredients rather by E-number, it gives the food product a ‘clean label’
declaration.
Clean label declarations are not regulated; however, the Food Standards
Agency in the UK has issued “Criteria for the use of the terms Fresh, Pure,
Natural etc.” which could be used as guidance. In addition, when incorporating
new substances into foods one would also need to comply with the EC Regulation
258/97 concerning Novel Foods and Novel Food Ingredients.
A number of ingredients are now being manufactured that claim to give
foods a clean label status e.g. emulsifiers such as lecithin and soya protein;
antioxidants including grape seed, chestnut and olive leaf extracts; colours for
example, lycopene, anthocyanin and chlorophyll; and preservatives including
cinnamic acid, carvacol, chitosan, and lysozyme.
Some bacterial cultures, known as ‘protective cultures’, able to inhibit
the growth of pathogenic bacteria and mycotoxin-producing mould are being
used as inhibitors of foodborne microorganisms. These protective cultures
produce antimicrobial metabolites like organic acids (lactic and acetic acid), and
bacteriocins (nisin and natamycin), and are substitutes for conventional additives,
helping manufacturers make the ‘Clean Label’ claim.
It will be some time before we see a complete shift to clean label
products, and in some situations this may not be possible due to a lack of suitable
natural alternatives.
Conclusions
Much has happened to and in the food industry and the market for food since the
great focus on additives in the 1980s. The popular books produced on the subject
at that time focused largely on the potential adverse effects of additives; the
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potential misleading of consumers about the food they were eating; and the profitdriven nature of the industry motivated to use additives in their products
(17,18,19). But not all of this criticism was without justification, and there were
undoubtedly bad practices in place in some sectors of the industry, where
unscrupulous traders saw opportunities for quick profit. The use of phosphates in
reconstituted meat and fish products to make them appear as better-quality cuts
and fillets or to add weight to a chicken was a dodge that trading standards
officers rightly pursued with some zeal. This is not a criticism of the legitimate
use of phosphates in meat products such as hams, but of the instances of false
description of reconstituted products as prime cuts, and frozen “scampi” that
disintegrated on defrosting. Any business will always have its unscrupulous
operators, but strict regulation and enforcement now make this increasingly
difficult in the food industry.
The 1990 Food Safety Act provided the framework of primary
legislation for the food industry in the UK. The raft of legislation on food
additives developed as part of the European Single Market, and explored in detail
in a later chapter, strictly controls the use of all additives.
The establishment of the Food Standards Agency, with its dual role of
protecting and informing the consumer, may well influence both trends in the use
of additives and public perceptions of their worth.
Furthermore, the market has changed considerably in recent years,
partly as a result of European integration and partly because consumers have
become more sophisticated, more knowledgeable, and more affluent. Overseas
travel has greatly broadened the British palate and increased demand for a wide
range of exotic and adventurous foods that have been sampled overseas. Our
increasingly cosmopolitan society has also led to the availability of more and
more “ethnic” foods, both in restaurants and for domestic consumption, while
busy lifestyles, and the increasing number of working women have led to more
and more food being consumed outside the home.
Never has the range and choice of foods been so great, in terms of
availability in the supermarkets and specialist food shops, or through the catering
trade. This is not to say that additives are less widely used or less relevant – far
from it. But those who wish to avoid them, either as manufacturers or consumers,
should find it possible to do so, and those who do use them need have no
concerns, except to obey the law in the case of manufacturers, and to understand
the meaning of the ingredients list in the case of consumers. Astute consumers
now notice that it is not only pre-packed foods that contain additives: foods sold
“loose” at delicatessen counters are now also labelled to indicate the content of
additives – or should be. And it has not escaped the notice of public health
analysts that the greatest use of food colours is in ethnic restaurants. Public
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protection is ensured and additives cannot be used to deceive, but we would be
deceiving ourselves if we thought that we could continue to enjoy the choice, ease
and convenience of our food supply without them. Like them or not, they are a
fact of life and their usefulness cannot be denied.
References
1
McKendry M. Seven Hundred Years of English Cooking. London,
Treasure Press. 1973.
2
Directive 89/107/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member
States concerning food additives authorised for use in foodstuffs
intended for human consumption, as amended. The Official Journal of
the European Communities. 1989, 32 (L40), 27-33.
3
Feingold B.F. Hyperkinesis and learning disabilities linked to artificial
food flavors and colors. American Journal of Nursing, 1975, 75,
797–803.
4
Dean T. Do food additives cause hyperactivity? in Food Allergy and
Intolerance, Current Issues and Concerns. Ed. Emerton V. Leatherhead.
Leatherhead Food International, 2002, 93-101.
5
McCann D et al. Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-yearold and 8/9-year-old children in the community: a randomised, doubleblinded, placebo-controlled trial. The Lancet, 2007, 370, 1560-7.
6
Bateman B et al. The effects of a double blind, placebo controlled,
artificial food colourings and benzoate preservative challenge on
hyperactivity in a general population sample of preschool children.
Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2004, 89, 506-11.
7
Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the council
on flavourings and certain food ingredients with flavouring properties
for use in and on foods (amended proposal - 24 October 2007)
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2007/com2007_0671
en01.pdf
8
Minutes of the 2nd Plenary meeting of the Scientific Panel on food
additives, flavourings, processing aids and materials in contact with food
- Held in Brussels on 9 July 2003
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/EFSA/Event_Meeting/minutes_afc_02_
adopted_en1,0.pdf
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9
Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the
Council on the progress of the re-evaluation of Food Additives (July
2007)
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2007/com2007_
0418en01.pdf
10
Opinion of the Scientific Panel on food additives, flavourings,
processing aids and materials in contact with food (AFC) related to para
hydroxybenzoates (E 214-219) (Adopted on 13 July 2004)
11
Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Food Additives, Flavourings,
Processing Aids and Materials in contact with Food (AFC) on a request
from the Commission related to a new long-term carcinogenicity study
on aspartame (Adopted on 3 May 2006)
12
Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Food Additives, Flavourings,
Processing Aids and Materials in Contact with Food on the food colour
Red 2G (E128) based on a request from the Commission related to the
re-evaluation of all permitted food additives (Adopted on 5 July 2007)
13
Commission Regulation (EC) No 884/2007 of 26 July 2007 on
emergency measures suspending the use of E128 Red 2G as food colour
14
Scientific Committee for Food. Report on Adverse Reactions to Food
and Food Ingredients. 1996.
15
Anon. Cyclamate levels ‘may cause testicular atrophy’. The Food
Magazine. 1997, 36, 1.
16
Anon. Aspartame ‘may cause brain tumours’. The Food Magazine. 1997,
36, 5.
17
Millstone E. Food Additives – Taking the lid off what we really eat.
Harmondsworth, Penguin. 1986.
18
Hanssen M. E for Additives – The complete E number guide.
Wellingborough, Thorsons. 1984.
19
Saunders B. Understanding Additives. London, Consumers Association.
1988
Further Reading
Wilson R. Ingredients Handbook – Sweeteners (3rd Edition). Leatherhead Food
International, 2007.
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Kendrick A. Clean up your label with the colourful alternatives to additives,
Confectionery Production, 2005, 71(4), 14-15.
Anon. Colouring Foodstuffs – The Clean Label Colourful Alternative to
Additives? Innovations in Food Technology, 2006, 30, 76-7.
Stich E., Court J., Colouring without Colour, Fruit Processing, 2006, 16 (3), 1615.
The European Food Safety Authority, Food Additives, 2007
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/EFSA/KeyTopics/efsa_locale1178620753812_FoodAdditives.htm..
Emerton V. Ingredients Handbook – Food Colours (2nd Edition). Leatherhead
Food International, 2008.
21